I've always been given headaches while selling horses. I don't even want to deal with it right now. Selling this one has been the worse, I've had so many tire kickers and people who can't seem to read the ad and ask me questions I've answered in the ad. Now the price says firm and everyone is still asking me to come down because it's such a far drive. I've even been asked if I could deliver him or meet halfway from far away states.
So post your selling stories I have alot of interesting ones and I'm sure others do to.Posted via Mobile Device

At one point I was working with an Irish horse dealer selling horses. Mostly we were dealing to other dealers but we would also sell to the public.
George would buy in Ireland and send the horses over (14 at a time) and I would sell. Ideally when the horses arrived the dealers would be there and often hardly any horse set foot in a stable, it would be of one horsebox and onto another.

One day a family arrived out of the blue, Parents and two children aged about 12 & 14. Their transport was a brand new Jaguar car, all were dressed in immaculate, never ridden in before riding clothes and wanted to buy two horses and two ponies.
The family seemed to have it all. Good looking, money and father was a charmer.

They all rode but were inexperienced. The mother and daughter were by far the best.

They rode a few horses and decided on the four they wanted. All were decent animals.

As it happened George was staying. He was chatting, with his Irish charm to the father and soon a deal was being struck. The price of the horses had trebled before they had got out of the car. They also bought tack and rugs for the animals.

It was on a Friday afternoon. And the people wanted the horses delivered on the Saturday. The warning hairs on the back of my neck had been prickling and after they left, with George arranging for me to deliver the horses the next day. I voiced my concern but was told to take them and that the cheque would be OK.

Horses loaded I had a two hour drive to deliver them. I stopped in a village to ask directions to the address and did notice when I asked the man looked a bit puzzled but gave me the directions.

The address was to a large Georgian house outside the village. It was a very impressive house but looked very empty. Curtains were drawn across al the windows and there was no sign of anyone other than the family that were waiting in the large stable yard - dressed all in their riding gear.

The young man that had come with me was, by now, also concerned.
I acted as if all was normal but the warning flags were hoisted higher when I saw that there was no hay or bedding in any stable, the tackroom had not been used in ages by the dust and cobwebs in there.

I asked about the hay and bedding and was told it was coming later . That was it I told them that I would take the horses back and return them when the feed had arrived and not charge them for the extra trip.

I am not easily charmed, and despite all the begging and pleading, tears from the mother and two children, I turned the horsebox around and drove home.

I stopped in the village and asked an elderly man tending his garden about the house. I was told it was for sale and had been for two years. Being a village they would have known had it been sold.

As we drove further so a large horsebox passed us. I had to pull over to let them pass on the narrow road and the driver asked me where this house was. I asked him why he was going there and was told he was picking up four horses.
I told him not to bother as they were in the back of my vehicle!

I was right and it was a con. Fortunately al that was lost was time and fuel.
The cheque bounced which did not surprise me at all.

I was prepared to give my horse away, but stuck a price tag on him to weed out desperate teenagers. He was advertised as for experienced, physically strong adults only, because he reared and stopped and was generally a huge pain in the butt. Sweet as pie on the ground, but it's like you take all the Appy stereotypes and roll them into one, there you go. I also mentioned that he was NOT happy going English in an arena, but appeared happy to hack out on the trails. Of course the very first email I got was from a girl who said "well I'm only fifteen but I'm a trainer at 'x' barn, and I'm looking for a horse to do jumpers on" so I asked her if she would be working with a professional she said "I don't think you understood me, I'm a professional at 'x' barn." Needless to say, I KNOW that horse would have hurt her, so I said no and eventually gave him to a strict old guy who liked to hack trails but jeesh, and she wasn't the only person who contacted me looking for their first horse.

Foxhunter, that story was creepy!!! Glad you didn't go through with it!

I had a potential buyer, who claimed to be very experienced, come see my mare (who was advertised as green/needs experience). The mare did a tiny 'feeling frisky' buck while lunging pre-ride, and then the girl was too scared to even try her. So she went home, but left her hat at my place. She then called and requested I deliver her hat to her, because for SOME REASON she no longer had transportation.

It would be one thing if the kind of stuff mentioned on this thread was a rarity, but it's not! There seems to be so many more tire-kickers, liars, and entitled people than good, solid honest people. I struggle to keep faith in humanity!

FoxHunter...what a bizarre deal! How wonderful those people are bringing up their children to be such upstanding members of society...bunch of thieves! Thank goodness you had the wit to notice the surroundings and not leave the horses.

Alexis...It's amazing how many people are not smart enough to actually read an ad. Makes you wonder how they get through the day. Lack of smarts and too much confidence in their limited ability. Bad combination!

Petitepyro...Do you still have that hat? : )

I had a horse for sale a few years ago. One woman was out here three times to try and talk me into selling her that horse The second and third time she just showed up, once with a friend as reinforcements. That horse was not for her and I told her that from the get-go. The more I said NO the more determined she got. One more time and she would have gotten a very unfrienly response. Thank goodness she gave up. I still have that horse. : ) And I am not sorry.

BarrelRacer...If you want to make yourself nuts just advertise something!

Lol I'm being driven there. The sad part is nobody has even came to look at him yet. Right now the thing seems to be nobody reads the ad and asks every question answered in it then they don't like the fact he has never been hauled to shows, which it clearly says in ad.

I have one from when my mom tried to sell her mare. The mare is a free runner barrel horse and in the ad it says that my mom didnt get along with the horse why she was selling. She's also a 2D high powered horse. So the people who come see her for a 13 year old girl who has never rode a barrel horse before, just an old pony in 4H around barrels. But they were going to get lessons after buying. They went around trying out 1D/ 2D horses. It was interesting anyway. They didnt buy if they had wanted to my mom was going to say no anyway.Posted via Mobile Device

At the same time as the post above, we had run out of horses to sell. Back then all bar racehorses had to travel in the hold of the ships. First the dockers were on strike and then it was bad weather.
I think we only had three or four horses in for sale. One was heavily in foal, the other two were lame and the fourth was a 14.2 pony that had been there for about 8 weeks and we had been unable to catch her.

So, being bored, the lad that worked with me decided that it was time we caught her.
That in itself was a mornings work. She would not be cornered, would not follow another horse, would not come through the open gate and if she thought you were getting to close she would pop the 4'6" rails as if they were a caveletti.
Eventually with the help of two GSD dogs, one of which grabbed her top lip, we caught her. (The dog was not trained to do this so it shocked me that somehow he knew it was a way to hold an animal as they do in the wild)

Once the mare was caught she was fine to do anything with. I tacked her and took her into the arena. Well, what a start to a Monday morning!
She was nutter. Tried to charge off, bucked for fun and if she saw a jump she would fly leap and tank off over it.

This mare was a 'cheapie' bought at a sale to make up a full load. I could see why she was at a sale!
I took her from the arena into the field where there were no jumps but she was just as bad.
Neil was leaning over the gate doubled up with laughter and making all sorts of not so polite comments.
I noticed before he did a Polls Royce coming up the drive. The car stopped by the arena gate and a chauffeur got out and opened a back door for an elderly lady.

At this point I was vainly trying to find the brakes from a fast canter to a trot or walk or better still a halt!

I half headed the mare to the gate which was a silly thing to do, she took one look at it, sped up, did two fly leaps and popped the gate with Neil jumping to the side. This put me back in the arena heading straight to a parallel the wrong way. I vainly hauled on one rein to steer her around it but she was locked and we popped it as nothing.
Somehow I managed to slow her down and heading straight to Neil who was away from the gate, she slowed down considerably and I jumped off, holding her reins. She then stopped.
We walked to the arena gate and the lady was smiling like a Cheshire cat. She was smitten with this pony that "Jumped when there were no jumps" and was just what she was looking for her grand daughter who was fourteen.

I explained to the woman that there was no way this pony was suitable for a novice child as she was in a great need of schooling.
The old girl was stubborn, the reason her granddaughter had not won at a gymkhana was because she was riding an old schoolmaster pony from a riding school If she had a horse like this then she would win.

She then asked a price. I thought of a figure and trebled it, three times.
She never batted an eyelid. I insisted that the pony be vetted thinking that I could explain the situation and get them to fail it. She was insistent that the pony was taken home with them there and then.
Thinking this was a way out I told her the horsebox was off the road in need of a repair. She asked where she could buy a trailer. I again explained that neither the trailer dealer (five miles down the road,) not I would take a cheque. She again astounded me and said she would go to the bank.

I thought it would be the last we saw of her but an hour or so later back she came towing a brand new top of the range trailer. She paid cash for the mare - which loaded beautifully.

I was insistent that if they had problems to let me know and I would take the mare back. She agreed.

Now, our reputation as dealers was made not on the good horses you sold but on the bad ones. I would always take any horse we had sold back and had more than once refused to sell if it was obviously unsuitable.
The only reason I sold this mare was because the woman said that as the stables weren't finished they would turn her out on twenty acres. I knew they would never catch her!

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